Texting ban deserves an upgrade
Texting at the wheel Credit: Newsday/Thomas A. Ferrara
Study after study makes it clear that texting while driving is terribly dangerous, and the state of New York was right to ban the practice in 2009. What the state got wrong was declaring texting while driving a "secondary" violation, meaning motorists could not be pulled over and charged with it unless police also spied them breaking another law, like speeding or having a brake light out.
Now, the State Senate has passed legislation that would make texting while driving a primary offense, and the Assembly should follow suit.
The impulse to peck out a quick message in response to a query from the spouse or the boss is difficult to resist, even for the most instinctively law-abiding people. We find it easy to convince ourselves that it's OK because we're at a light, there's no traffic or "it will only take a second." It's a temptation, though, that we need to avoid, and laws need to actively discourage.
Texting while driving has been blamed as a factor in more than 16,000 deaths nationwide, and one recent analysis showed texting while operating a motor vehicle increased the chance of an accident even more than driving drunk.
It makes no sense that a motorist should have to be committing another, separate violation for police to levy the $150 fine and 2-point violation that texting while driving calls for. It's an action dangerous enough, and common enough, that it deserves to be prosecuted on its own account.
